IV. 



PERSONAL ADORNMENT: MUTILATIONS, LIP ORNAMENTS, TATTOOING,' 

 AND PAINTING. ORNAMENTS, NECKLACES, PENDANTS, AND BRACE- 

 LETS. DRESS, ANCIENT, MODERN, RAIN, WAR, AND CERE MONIAL. 



MUTILATIONS. 



The practice of mutilation is older than recorded history. Man never 

 has been satisfied witli either his structure or appearance, and has con- 

 stantly endeavored to improve upon both. On the northwest coast the 

 mutilations are of the head and face, the practice of flattening or com- 

 pressing the head being, however, peculiar only to the southern tribes 

 of this region. Mackenzie, in his visit to the Bilqula, in 1793, described 

 their heads as " wedge-shaped." This does not, however, obtain among 

 the Haida, Tsimshiau, and Tlingit, but they pierce the ear and the sep- 

 tum of the nose, and in addition the women slit the lower lip. 



Lip, nose, and ear ornaments. — While amongst the Eskimo the men 

 pierce the lip and wear the sleeve-button-shaped labrets of bone, shell, 

 ivory, or stone, amongst the northern Indians the women alone wear 

 the lip ornament. Between these two geographically are the Koniagas 

 and Aleut. With the Koniagas both sexes pierce the septum of the 

 nose and the under lip and wear ornaments in them. 



Beginning with the Yakutat* and running as far south as the Kwa- 

 kiutl,t we find the custom amongst the women of wearing a labret in 

 a slit cut in the lower lip. It is symbolic of maturity, the incision first 

 being made either in childhood or else at puberty. In either case it is 

 done with some ceremony, which is described in Chapter xiii. A cop- 

 per wiref or piece of shell or wood is introduced into the fresh incision 

 to keep the wound open. The object inserted is gradually enlarged 

 until an artificial opening of some size is made. When maturity is 

 reached a block of wood is inserted. This is oval or elliptical in shape, 

 and amongst the Haida and Tsimshian quite elongated. With the 

 Tlingit, on the other hand, it is almost circular in shape. In general 

 it is hollowed out on both sides, and grooved on the edge like the sheave 



* Dall, Alaska, p. 428, aud Bancroft, Vol. i. Native Eaces, both state that the Ya- 

 kutat do uot now wear the lip ornameut. Dixou (1787), however, iu Voyages, p, 172, 

 minutely describes the custom as then in vogue amongst them. 



t Simpson, Journey Eound the World, p. 204, Vol. i. (1841). 



X Vancouver, Voyages, Vol. ii, p. 408, states that the copper or brass "corrodes 

 the lacerated parts, and by consuming the flesh gradually iricrenses the orifice until 

 it is .sufficiently large to admit tl>e wooden appendagf." 



256 



